Judge Upholds Bail Conditions in Adoption Consultant Case

A federal judge on Thursday denied a request by prosecutors to keep behind bars an Irvine woman suspected of running an international baby-selling ring out of her home.

U. S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler said the conditions set for the release of 48-year-old Marianne Gati were “very stringent” and the $700,000 bail was “adequate.”

Federal prosecutors had appealed to Stotler to reject the decision by a federal magistrate to grant Gati bail. Assistant U. S. Atty. J. Daniel McCurrie argued that Gati, a Canadian citizen, might attempt to avoid prosecution by fleeing the country.

Gati is charged in a criminal complaint with three counts of tax evasion for failing to report and pay taxes for the last three years on money she earned from her adoption business.

She was arrested June 21 by federal agents who alleged that she was running an international baby-selling operation that arranged for pregnant women to obtain U.S. visas illegally, and then allow Gati to sell their babies to adoptive American parents.

Gati has vigorously denied the government’s allegations that she was involved in an illegal baby-selling operation. Her attorney, H. Dean Steward, who heads the federal public defender’s office here, said his client ran a legitimate adoption business that, in exchange for a $5,000 fee, put poor Hungarian mothers in contact with adoptive parents in the United States.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elgin Edwards ordered last week that Gati surrender her passport, wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and be placed under house arrest after she posted bail.

McCurrie told Stotler on Thursday that those conditions were not adequate, saying that Gati could easily slip off to Tijuana and obtain travel documents there.

“She has no incentive to stick around for a trial here,” McCurrie said.

But Steward disagreed.

He said the charges against Gati represented “a simple tax case,” noting that the government had not filed any charges dealing with baby-selling against his client.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Stotler said the bail conditions were “carefully thought out” and that she would not “upset that order.”

Steward said he expects to have his client freed within the next 48 hours.